A series of biblical readings and prayers from David L. Miller, senior pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, Naperville, IL. David is the former editor of The Lutheran magazine and Director of Spiritual Formation at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.

Friday, July 01, 2016

Luke 10:1After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go.

Not alone

I was moved by a recent note from Marie. She is a retired
bishop in our church, who had been using a little book, Bread for the Day, for her devotions. The book has a short Bible reading and a prayer for each day
of the year. I wrote the prayers for month of May.

She was struck by the beauty of my little prayers and wrote
to tell me they had enhanced her prayer life. For her, the prayers were a sign
of hope, and she wrote to me remembering what notes of encouragement and
support have meant to her during her ministry.

For me, her note was one more reminder that am I am not
alone, a reminder that in Christ I am never alone. And that is very good news.

I am joined to a community of people across the world in
whose souls the Spirit of Christ’s love lives and breathes, moving them beyond
themselves to bless and even write notes to people they do not know.

The Spirit of Christ in my little prayers stirred the Spirit
in a person I do not know, but who, in me, recognizes a heart they know, a Love
that they feel and a Presence that binds us together despite distance and every
difference that separates.

I am not alone. You are not alone. You are bound
heart-to-heart with every soul in whom the Spirit of Christ lives and breathes.
You are connected with every heart, in every time and place, who has known the
stirring of Love Immeasurable in the depth of their soul.

We share one Spirit, one Love, one joy, one hope … to know
fully the Love we bear within.

We need each other. We need to share this Spirit, giving and
receiving words and moments of blessing and support. For, every time we do … we
experience of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus sent his disciples out two-by-two to announce to each
village ahead of him that he was coming. They were sent to heal and bless,
greeting each household saying, “Peace to this house.”

If their peace was returned, they remained there, sharing
food and living as a little community of peace, a community of those who know
and hunger for Christ and the Kingdom he brings.

The church, this communion of grace, is an explicit presence of
Christ in the world, a living sign of the Kingdom the Spirit is creating.
Christ unites us, heart-to-heart in the Spirit of the Love he is. Apart from the community where Christ unites us, we miss the
joy we could have, the support we need and the Love we crave.

We live in a society that preaches independence, urging us
to insist on our rights and stand on our own two feet. Those of independent
mind and spirit are prized and celebrated. But our culture takes these values too
far, denying the truth that we need each other and that our deepest joy and
fulfilment comes by living in loving community with others, sharing what we
have and receiving what we need.

The church, the community of grace we share, is a living
sign of our truest needs as human beings. In our gathering, we touch and know,
again, that we are connected heart-to-heart with every soul who has ever known
the Love Immeasurable who wants us all.